CASE PACKING

Machinery to collate a product into the desired formation
and insert into a previously erected case.

The machines can be in various forms but the two most
common designs are horizontal and vertical drop packers. The machines
are basically product collators. The cases are pre-erected and either
placed in position by hand or semi-automatically.

The horizontal type machine is quite common but cost
is entirely dependent upon speed of product and type of collation.>

The standard machines are for reasonably "hard"
stable products.

Some machines have been developed for products such
as sachets and pouch products (e.g. potato chips). Two basic methods are
used, one is to pick up a row of products either mechanically or by vacuum
and place in the case, the operation is repeated until the required number
is packed.

The alternative method, although not popular, is to
drop in the produce from a moving conveyor so that the product is dropped
into the case in layers.

These sachet machines are fairly slow as each row is
picked up separately. Speeds of around 60 products per minute are possible
on the machine placing the product or 100 per minute when dropped in the
case.